Transcript for Race Against Time to Stop Fukishima Radioactive Water From Leaking Into the Sea

Tonight the japanese are still battling the affects of that quake two and a half years ago. They're going to try something never done before on this scale because radiation is leaking into the pacific ocean. Abc's cecilia vega on the race against time. Reporter: It sounds like science fiction, a massive underground wall of ice so cold and strong, it stops hundreds of tons of radioactive water seeping out of puck seem ma power plant tanks and into the pacific. This is no movie. It's a $320 million emergency plan announced today by the japanese government. Here's how it would work, an above ground refrigerator chills a coolant to minus 40 degrees fahrenheit. It gets pumped into the plant. Just like a kitchen freezer, everything around those pipes also freezes. A giant wall of ice forms, stretching nearly a mile long and nearly 10 stories below ground, about the height of the lincoln memorial. Some scientists say this may just be a short term fix, but something has to be done soon before there is even greater damage to the environment and japan's economy. It might not be as much radioactive activity as chernobyl but for the ocean we've never seen that much radiation coming out of a reaction site directly into the ocean. Reporter: There has been nothing like the size of scope of this where radiation levels are 18 times higher than previously thought, enough to kill a person after just four hours of exposure. So what does this mean for the fish that makes its way to u.S. Waters from japan? So far scientists say they have not found any unsafe levels of radiation. But with these continued leaks scientists say will come an increasingly sharper look at the fish we eat and the waters they swim in. Cecilia vega, abc news, los angeles.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

Stopping Japan's Radioactive Material From Reaching US

Fukishima power plant reportedly dumping 300 tons of contaminated water a day into the Pacific Ocean

{"id":20148714,"title":"Race Against Time to Stop Fukishima Radioactive Water From Leaking Into the Sea","duration":"1:59","description":"Japan is allocating $473 million for an ice wall 100 feet deep to stop a radioactive leak.","section":"WNT","mediaType":"Default"}